Movie Review: The hits and misses of Disconnect the Movie.

The much anticipated Disconnect the Movie finally had its second premiere this past weekend – yeah it was that good that it had a second premiere.

The movie first premiered during the Nairobi Film Festival with tickets selling out within days proving that this film was a definite must watch.

Based on the complicated dating scene in Nairobi the Romantic Comedy stars big names in the Kenyan film industry such as Nick Mutuma, Brenda Wairimu, Catherine Kamau-Karanja, Pierra Makena, Pascal Tokodi, Brian Ogola, Patricia Kihoro and many more.

It follows one of the lead characters Celine played by Brenda Wairimu who can’t seem to get it quite right when it comes to dating. Celine can however always count on her girl squad when dealing with such issues: TK (Catherine Kamau-Karanja) the crazy one of the group, Judy (Patricia Kihoro) who is the prayer warrior and Holy one of the group, Robin (Pierra Makena) Celine’s sister and Preeti (Aseem Sharma) her co-worker and the fun one in the group.

Elsewhere we have Celine’s best friend Josh, portrayed by Nick Mutuma, who also has his own guy squad played by Pascal Tokodi, Arthur Sanya.

Josh and Celine have an unspoken sexual and love connection that they are often teased about by their friends.

Now that we have the premise out of the way, we can move on to the hits and misses of Disconnect the Movie.

Hits

Comic relief

The film perfectly captured the comedic aspect that left the entire audience in stitches. Stand out characters for comic relief were without a doubt, Catherine Kamau-Karanja, Pascal Tokodi and Patricia Kihoro.

To mention a few scenes in the movie, there was one where TK (Catherine) is describing Josh’s girlfriend saying: Huyo dame anafanana ile emoji ya moto (That girl is the perfect representation of the fire emoji).

Another scene that stood out was when Pascal and Nick’s characters were having a business meeting with Illya Frank’s character Belinda. Pascal is explaining a proposal to Illya Frank’s character and the entire time Nick and Illya are stuck staring at each other, clearly communicating an unspoken sexual tension – Pascal is still talking. This scene creates the perfect third wheel situation and Pascal without a doubt nailed it.

Patricia Kihoro’s character Judy is the Holy one amongst the girl squad so when she accidentally orders for a sex expert during Robin’s (Pierra Makena) bridal shower, things take an interesting turn much to the dismay of Judy.

Her expression when the sex expert removed a dildo out of her bag was enough to make the entire cinema burst out into laughter.

Video quality and music

The cinematography in this movie was undoubtedly top notch. From the skyline shots to extreme close ups, the camera crew was on point. The editing was also amazing.

Oh and how can I forget the flashback scenes. Well executed and they made the story being told that much more interesting.

The Kenyan music featured in the movie gave the movie and authentic feel which resonated with the audience. Big up!

There are some storylines that I felt were left hanging in the movie. For instance, at the beginning of the movie, Celine is/was in an open relationship with a guy called Kenneth. She seemed to have really liked him -actually love him seeing that she even felt like she would marry him. Kenneth unfortunately dies in a car accident and Celine is heartbroken, mourning him for what seemed to be days. Aside from a few mentions here and there I didn’t really know much about Ken. This storyline felt a little bit disconnected from the movie’s flow – but that’s just my opinion.

The love between Josh and Celine

The love/sexual tension between Josh and Celine wasn’t as clear from the beginning and I felt it came out a little too late into the movie.

All in all, the movie was good and it gave the Film Industry a much needed boost which in turn motivates more film makers to come out and think outside the box with their ideas.

Big up to the entire cast and crew for putting it together and making it come to life.